Many patients have now heard about the new femtosecond, laser cataract surgery following a recent segment on television.

This subject is increasingly being raised in discussion when patients come to see me for cataract surgery.

The committee at the Victoria Parade Surgical Centre where we regularly operate, recently met to discuss the possibility of purchasing one of these devices. To date there are two in operation in NSW only. After the meeting it was decided that we not be acquiring one. The reasons are as foliows. The machine cost more than half a million dollars and the on going maintenance nearly $100,000 per annum. Further the per patient cost is $500. In order for the centre to break even per patient, an additional cost of more than $1500 needs to be imposed on each patient. Now who in their right mind would want to pay this additional sum for their cataract surgery? Particularly since there is no tangible benefit other than to be able to boast that their surgery was done by the state of the art method.

If there was a markedly better outcome or increased safety then maybe, but there isn’t either. Thus at present this type of surgery is nothing more than a marketing gimmick. Now make no mistake, that in the future it will probably be the way to go, but until it becomes significantly cheaper it will not become mainstream.

All that can be said about it is that it is just a “different” way of performing an already excellent operation, not a better way.

The National ACO conference is rapidly approaching and I have been invited to speak.
Links are here and here and the flyer is here.

I have been honoured to have been asked to judge a photographic competition for the Pakenham Camera Club on March 16th.
I will be giving a talk on photography and my experiences.
This is as a consequence of my patients seeing my photographic exhibition in my waiting area.
I trained in photography and have a Diploma of Illustrative Photography from Photography studies college prior to my medical training.
Attendance is open to the general public

The Moonee Ponds talk has been changed to Tuesday 9th march. The venue is unchanged

I will be giving a talk in Moonee Ponds to local optometrists on the 2nd march at my Moonee Ponds rooms in Pascoe Vale Rd.
I will be conducting a grand rounds in which I will present interesting cases in cataract, refractive surgery and glaucoma.

I will be discussing the new Crystalens HD and my experiences with it. I will also be discussing the soon to be available Calhoun lens which promises to be exciting.
Hope to see you all there.

At last the federal government has conceded defeat in its attempt to cut the cataract rebate in half.
Instead it has reduced it by only 12% and will not index the amount to inflation for at least the next few years.
At least patients cataract surgery will only have a small out of pokect cost.
See link to articles here, here, here, here and here.
Also here is the AMA press release.

Welcome to the inaugural post for our site.
Over time I will add updates regarding goings on in our practice, such as new procedures or educational events.
Also, as new technologies or techniques come to light, I will write about them here.

as were are early adopter, techno-junkies, you can rest assure that if some new happens, you’ll read about it here.

jsl